Category: midwives

birth, midwives, pregnancy

Pregnancy tests (from The Conversation UK)

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A brief history of pregnancy tests – from toads and rabbits to rosewater Helen King, The Open University Today, knowing if you are pregnant is usually straightforward – you pee on a stick and then wait for the lines to appear. Tests for women to use themselves at home were first marketed in the 1960s. They… Continue reading Pregnancy tests (from The Conversation UK)

birth, dissection, midwives, museums and collections, womb

The skull inside the doll…

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Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin... (T.S. Eliot, Whispers of Immortality) I was very excited when the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (@RCPEHeritage) tweeted pictures today illustrating that they have been ‘X-raying two of our circa 18thc midwifery manikins (also known as ‘phantoms’) – to discover that… Continue reading The skull inside the doll…

Bad History, doctors, gender, internet, midwives, museums and collections

Exhibiting our past: “This Vexed Question”

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There's been a lot of interest online in a temporary exhibition which has recently opened at the Royal College of Physicians in London: "This Vexed Question: 500 years of women in medicine". I was disturbed by some of the media reports, in particular one in Culture Trip which started with the comment that the RCP was 'dissecting… Continue reading Exhibiting our past: “This Vexed Question”